Sports News 12:30

BULLETIN SPORTS NEWS 9 September 12:30 pm

Good day, let’s look at the latest sports news and scores:

# We start off with soccer: Six players of reigning world champions Spain are included in this year’s list for the coveted Ballon d’Or. Among them are Ferran Torres, whose goal in the World Cup final against Argentina secured victory for Spain. Argentina’s captain in the tournament, Lionel Messi, appears for the 17th time, but Portugal’s captain, Cristiano Ronaldo, was omitted. Torres recently joined Paris St-Germain, who has a total of ten players on the list, including Ousmane Dembele. The award ceremony takes place on the 26th of next month.

# Tennis: American Ben Shelton knocked out defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in a five-set thriller to reach the US Open semifinals for the first time since 2023. The eighth seed battled past the Spaniard in four-hours-and-28-minutes in the quarterfinal clash, that finished at 3:33 a.m. in New York, the latest finish for a match at the hard-court major. Shelton will face compatriot Frances Tiafoe, who came from two sets down to beat fellow American Alex Michelsen, for a place in the final.

# Cricket: Australia will introduce private investment in its lucrative Big Bash T20 league from the 2027/28 season, starting with the sale of the Melbourne Renegades. Cricket Australia says pending the result of that sale, it will consider placing other clubs on the market under a self-determination model. Renegades, which won the competition in the 2018/19 season, currently belongs to the governing body of the state of Victoria. Reuters reports C-A hoped to raise up to 6.9-billion-rand from its initial privatisation plan after reporting a huge net deficit earlier.

# Golf: LIV Golf has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States in an attempt to restructure after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund withdrew its financial backing. The fund decided not to continue funding beyond the 2026 season, having spent nearly 80-billion-rand over five years. The breakaway league owes at least 720-million-rand to players. LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil says this process will allow time to pursue a landmark transaction and begin the next chapter built around the fans and an innovative player-first ownership model.

# And lastly, motorsport: New Zealand driver Liam Lawson will again drive Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull in this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid after the Frenchman failed to recover from a wrist injury which kept him out of the previous two Formula One races. Lawson’s place at Racing Bulls will be taken by Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda. The team says Lawson will continue to drive alongside Dutch driver Max Verstappen after racing in the Dutch and the Italian Grand Prix. Hadjar currently sits eighth in the drivers’ championship.

Stay tuned for more news………….